In Alternate History and Speculative Fiction (especially the kind that takes place 20 Minutes into the Future), authors like to have fun by turning big countries into lots of smaller ones. May be justified by a war, a large-scale catastrophe, or simply a successful secessionist movement. Often happens with the United States of America, resulting in the Divided States of America, but other large countries such as China or Russia are also considered fair game.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

China is further divided in Full Metal Panic! where it is now the People's Liberation Committee (North China) and the Democratic Chinese Alliance (South China). Makes more sense than many, given the long-standing (cultural) north/south divide along the Yangtze.

Ghost in the Shell has a Balkanized USA. After the end of the nuclear World War III, the United States was divided into three countries: the American Empire, the Russo-American Alliance, and the United States of America.

In the original alternate history of Eureka Seven AO, Okinawa Prefecture has recently seceded from Japan with help from China.

In Heavy Object, the world became a fully shattered mosaic of small territories, each belonging to one of the four big factions: Legitimacy Kingdom(where bloodline and honor are everything), the Information Alliance(where inexactitudes and falses news are evil and weapons) , the Capitalist Corporations(where charity is a crime) and the Faith Organization(a patchwork of every religions invented). You can barely travel more than a couple hundred miles in any given direction before running into a border.

Titanium Rain has a neo-Imperial China and the Sino Union, made of China's peripheral territories minus Tibet.

Following the Divided We Fall arc in Ultimate Marvel, USA became splintered into several smaller factions, complete with Texas declaring its independence.

Fan Works

Code Geass Megiddo: Basically what happened to the Soviet Union after the EU conquered it in the titular Soviet War. As a result of (Western) European weariness toward further Russian aggression, the former USSR was broken up into much smaller statesnote which correspond to real world federal subjects anyway and annexed, such that everything past the Urals is now referred to as Far Eastern Europe (or just the Far East).

The Wanderer of the North: This was the fate of Ancient Equestria after its old capital was razed and the last Equestrian King slain by the invaders and monsters. The result was that Ancient Equestria was destroyed in the North and fractured into a smaller kingdom and several principalities in the South.

In-universe example in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse. Whereas in the Celestiaverse Celestia allowed a bloodthirsty warlord to unite the Griffon Kingdoms into an Empire that is still one of the biggest threats to Equestria, Princess Luna was a bit more procative in her continuity, and signed mutual defense pacts with several of the more reasonable Kingdoms. Equestria's resources were more than sufficient to prevent the warlord's conquest, and the Kingdoms remain divided still.

Literature

Robert A. Heinlein's Friday. In addition to Divided States of America, also has a divided Canada, and more than 400 UN member states. It mentions "Great Russia", indicating that the Soviet Union broke up (the book came out in 1982, before it happened in Real Life). There's also a mention of Prussia, but whether or not it's the united Germany is unclear.

In S.M. Stirling's Emberverse, a sudden collapse of functioning technology has balkanized most of the world (though in some cases, nations have been re-expanding), though we really only see the former USA. An article on the author's website, as well as two short stories released, talk about how Great Britain survives due to its offshore islands where civilisation can wait until everyone on the mainland dies off. It then rapidly expands to the point where in 2050 it controls all of Britain, Iceland (nominally) France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, a large Part of North Africa and the East Coast of the USA, as well as being the de facto rulers of New Zealand and what remains of Australia. It appears that instead of Balkanising, Europe simply falls apart and then a few states re-expand. Russia does dissolve into lots of rural kingdoms, though.

Ken MacLeod's The Star Fraction (first in the Fall Revolution tetralogy) has a Balkanised UK, and mentions the UN having over two thousand national flags flying outside.

One of the main characters in Charles Stross's The Eschaton Series is from The People's Republic of West Yorkshire, and claims that there are over 1,500 countries on Earth, although it's clear that Earthers have outgrown the concept of nation states, and just keep the names for sentimental reasons.

In Orson Scott Card's Hidden Empire this happens to Nigeria after an American invasion with a Muslim north and several nations forming along tribal lines in the Christian south. This is presented as an ultimately positive thing, as most current African borders exist because of European powers dividing the continent with no concern for existing tribal, cultural or religious ties.

Happened in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. After the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire began to fracture apart with the deaths of its two top leaders and elite military command staff. Over the course of nearly a decade, various Imperial Admirals began taking sectors for themselves and became warlords over sizable chunks of the galaxy, though over the course of the EU many of them were either conquered by the New Republic or absorbed into the Imperial Remnant, what remained of the centralized, original Galactic Empire.

In John Birmingham's After America, although it doesn't go into details, it's mentioned that France has become divided after the French Intifada in the previous book, Without Warning. Also, there are several cities in Germany called "sharia towns", particularly Neu Koln, that have become independent entities de facto, if not de jure.

In John Barnes Mother of Storms Siberia has become independent of Russia. Ironically it in turn is trying to absorb an independent Alaska. And while Alaska is the only US state to secede Canada is broken into at least Pacificanada, Ontario and Quebec. What happened to the Maritime provinces or the provinces between British Columbia and Ontario is not mentioned. By the end of the book China has broken into a dozen or more states controlled by warlords.

In Ian McDonald's River of Gods and Cyberiad, an anthology set in the same universe, India has broken up into seven different nations.

In Vladimir Vasilyev's Wolfish Nature, Siberia has seceded from Russia. Not because of any ideological or political differences but because of the inevitable corruption of territories far away from the capital (the Siberian capital is established in Krasnoyarsk, much closer than Moscow). The two countries still maintain cordial relations and open borders. Alaska has likewise seceded from the US, although it's barely mentioned, and the reasons for the secession are unknown but likely the same. Canada is also mentioned to have split, although no official names of the two countries are mentioned (they're always referred to as "both Canadas"). There are also inverted examples, such as United Europe, Baltica (all the Baltic nations), Turan (an amalgamation of Turkey and Iran), and Sinojapan. There's also a Middle Eastern Coalition, but it's more like what EU is in Real Life than a government. It's a lot easier to find common ground when there are no pesky wars, atrocities, and genocides to mar relations, as there have been no wars on Earth for centuries. Ever since the Bio-Correction has removed the "wolf" gene from everyone.

The Empire of Shattered Continent lost its Emperor in 1995, and most of his direct blood relatives died in the resulting scramble to grab the big chair. As of 2017 all the sub-kingdoms pay lip service to the still-vacant throne while doing effectively whatever they want, up to and including waging small wars on each other and handling their own foreign agendas outside the Empire.

In Larry Niven's The Goliath Stone Western Australia is now the nation of Westralia. During the book China breaks into civil war and by the end there are five different "People's Republics", the only one named being Kowloon-Hong Kong plus Tibet.

In the backstory for Tolkien's Legendarium, the bulk of the Eriador region was under the aegis of the Dunedain kingdom of Arnor. Its strength depleted as a result of several major disasters during the War of the Last Alliance against Sauron, and it eventually split into three smaller kingdoms: Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur. These kingdoms themselves came apart following brutal wars against the Witch-king of Angmar. By the time period of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Eriador is largely a no-man's land save for a few small isolated polities such as the Shire, Rivendell, and the Grey Havens.

Italy is split between North (Fascist-leaning rogue state) and South (member in good standing of the PCRA) Italy;

Yugoslavia was divided after WWII, between Nazi Germany-aligned Croatia and USSR-aligned Serbia (instead of imploding in the 90's);

Lebanon (between the Israel-occupied South and German-backed North), Jordan (split between a number of opposing factions due to Occult groups, Israel, and the government's inability to address either), Syria (whose southern tip seceded as Israel-backed Souadia - notice a pattern?);

Malaya and Kalimantan (North Borneo) never united to form Malaysia, though Brunei inverts the trope by having united with Kalimantan;

North and South Vietnam, whose war ended in a draw this time;

And the biggest case would be China; not only is it divided between the Communist North and the Nationalist South, but several outlying regions were carved off: Sinkiang (a Soviet puppet), Manchukuo (a Japanese puppet), Taiwan (now part of Japan proper), and Tibet (never annexed due to Communists and Nationalists being more preoccupied by each other to bother).

And then there are the Middle African and Indian Containment Zones, both of which have collapsed into anarchy and are rife with warlords, micro-states, roving ethnic militias and cults, and all kinds of preternatural activity.

Mentioned in Ian Douglas's Luna Marine, where the UN is desperately trying to hold together and force the rest of the world into One World Order. Unfortunately for them, the current tendency in the world is the opposite — splitting countries into smaller political entities. Interestingly, one of the reasons for the US-UN war is the attempt by the UN to force just such a thing in the US with the creation of Aztlan from the Southwestern (i.e. Hispanic-dominated) states.

Live Action TV

Revolution: In episode 5, there is a map that shows that both Canada and Mexico have lost territory to the various nations that that make up what used to be the United States. For instance the California Commonwealth extends into both British Columbia and Baja California and the Monroe Republic not only comprises the northeastern quarter of the former US but also Quebec south of the St. Lawrence and the Maritime Provinces. There are no detail on the rest of those nations but presumably they've also broken up.

Happened multiple times to the Centauri Republic in the backstory of Babylon 5: after touching its greatest extent in the 1999-2047 period, the Centauri suffered two reductions of their empire. By the time of the series, about three quarters of the worlds they used to control at one point or the other (both conquered and colonies) are lost, with the largest chunk forming the hostile Narn Regime, others having joined other independents to form the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, others still independent and neutral, and Vega (whose only value for the Centauri was that it linked their core regions to the distant Denova) having been passed to Earth Alliance when Denova successfully rebelled.

Tabletop Games

Shadowrun in addition to suffering from the Divided States of America (and Canada) has a large amount of Balkanization occurring, mostly as the result of famine, disease, Post-Modern Magik favoring rebellious oppressed groups, and other such things. This allows Megacorporations to assume more power than national entities.

The rest of the world isn't much different: China has split into many smaller countries, Russia is split in half, Germany is now a Confederation of six, and Africa is full of tribal "nations" no more then a few miles across.

Despite all of this, some regions do invert the trend: Northern Latin America is mostly split between Amazonia (Brazil plus the Guianas, Venezuela and most of Colombia) and Aztlan (Mexico plus continental Central America and the rest of Colombia, plus Southwest Texas, and North Africa and the Middle East has The Algerian Theocracy (which includes Tunisia and most of Libya), Egypt (which absorbed the more Arab/Muslim parts of Sudan), The Saud Caliphate (which covers the whole Arabian peninsula, Kuwait and Jordan) and Iran/the Persian Empire (which absorbed Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and all the Central Asian republics save Kazakhstan).

Rifts, by comparison, partially avoids this only because most places are too wild to become nations, or the ones that do forms tend to quickly fill the old borders and then some. One notable exception being Japan, which is split into a High-tech time-displaced remnant of Pre-Rifts Japan, an anti-technology Empire of Samurai (who ironically, actually like the previously-mentioned Republic), a much meaner High-tech (with a smattering of Magitek) Shogunate, a kingdom of DemonsOni, and a few scattered nations besides.

GURPSTranshuman Space has a few examples, but probably the most balkanized country is Canada. The core of the country is still called Canada, and the rest are Quebec, Newfoundland, the Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), Nunavut, the ABC Republic (Alberta and British Columbia), and the Free City of Montreal. Quebec, Newfoundland and the Maritimes are members of The European Union; ABC is a member of the Pacific Rim Alliance.

Risk. This is really only done to provide game balance, as there isn't really much backstory to a simple board game. The extent of Balkanization is rather vague in Risk 2210 A.D., where one might believe every single individual territory to be a separate country (which would also mean that several places are inversions, such as most of South America and Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia). The two Koreas are also reunited.

Eberron had the kingdom of Galifar, which split into five nations due to a succession dispute. This was followed by an inconclusive war lasting 102 years, during which other lands seceded from the core five.

The backstory also has the original Star League, which was shattered into the Successor Houses by the First Succession War.

One popular map for Diplomacy—particularly for email play—is a world map set in 1861 and including the Confederacy as a playable power. Also, many countries are divided into subunits for play purposes, so this is easy to do.

The Eldar Empire of Warhammer 40,000 spanned the entire galaxy before the heart of the empire was swallowed by the Eye of Terror. Some Eldar crewed independent, planet-sized spaceships called Craftworlds, some depraved individuals fled into the settlements in the Webway and formed a horrifying civilisation built on slavery and torture, some fled to worlds on the edges of the empire and formed Luddite colonies, and some simply took to roaming the galaxy as bands of raiders and pirates. The massive cultural differences which have emerged between these divergent Eldar factions over the millenia mean the Eldar race will probably never again be united as they used to be.

We can't mention Paradox Interactive games without mentioning Crusader Kings—just as in the real Middle Ages, large kingdoms have an alarming tendency to fragment into independent states if the dukes and counts don't consider the king a worthy ruler. This sometimes happens peacefully, but sometimes not.

Supreme Ruler 2020 has done this with pretty much the entire world (though some countries are slightly bigger, such as Belgium and Luxembourg forming one country).

The air-buccaneering game Crimson Skies—based on a tabletop game whose source books go into greater detail than the videogames - FASA (who created the tabletop game, as well as Battletech and Shadowrun) seem to love this trope—is set in a balkanized 1930s USA made up of several independent nations and micronations, as well as significant protectorates of European powers (mainly Britain and Nazi Germany). Russia has also split in the setting between White Russia and Red Russia who are both primarily focused on their own cold war they're having with each other.

Ace Attorney Investigations does it to itself. The fictional country of Cohdopia splits for unspecified reasons into Allebahst and Babahl. As well, the Republic of Zheng Fa seems to be a splinter country from China.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake has Zanzibarland, which was one of the many splinter countries of the former Soviet Union (keep in mind that this game was released before the actual fall of the Soviet Union).

Knights of Honor seems to start out this way, because the starting point is the Early Middle Ages, and Europe is very fractionated at this time. As playing time progresses the nations grow ever larger, however political unrest, the death of a ruler or religious revolts can result in entire nations fractionating into independent provinces.

Star Trek Online: After the Romulan Star Empire had its heart cut out by the destruction of Romulus and Remus in the Hobus System supernova (see Star Trek XI) the rest of the Empire fragmented into at least three factions. The current Romulan Star Empire is a military dictatorship led by Empress Sela and the Tal Shiar, while the Romulan Republic, the faction for Romulan player characters, is a democratic alliance of Romulans and Remans who want peace. There's also a Reman resistance movement that is part Space Pirate, part La Résistance, seeking to liberate their species from Romulan rule no matter the cost; they're allies of the Republic.

After the events of 'Romulan Mystery' (a series of missions shared between all three player factions), it is indicated that the Star Empire is fragmenting againin the absence of Sela and with the Tal Shiar having suffered severe losses, including their leader. No detail on the new fragmentation has yet been provided in-game, as the only one to even talk about this third collapse of the Empire is the leader of the Reman Resistance, and he only mentions it when it has just begun. Word of God has indicated that as of the current 'now' of the game, the Star Empire has been reduced to a handful of hold-out colonies... which means this trope is being reversed, as the Romulan Republic is now firmly established as the dominant power in Romulan space.

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl has the Canadian province of Ontario as an independent kingdom. The rest of North America, and presumably the world, is in a similar state, Ontario is just the only one still going by its original name.

In After the End: A Crusader Kings II Mod, the United States of America is now no more than a distant memory. Not even many of the original states we'd recognise today still exist. Instead, a number of kingdoms and mini-nations have sprung up with their own distinct cultures and religions. The same is true for Mexico and Canada. Interestingly, the inverse is true for Central America and the Caribbean, as the islands have merged together into new, unified empires (though Word of God states that the mod is being set up so that this happens to those Caribbean nations during most games, once the Empress dies and the kin-slaying crown prince takes the throne). Also inverted for the United Kingdom, which over the centuries seems to have revived the British Empire and will be making an attempt to take the colonies back.

The Kalos region from Pokémon X and Y is based on the northern half of France.

Web Originals

Decades of Darkness starts with the USA falling apart, and later France, Italy and Britain will meet the same fate after being defeated by Germany in the Great War.

The US-backed invasion of Cuba leads to the creation of the Federal Republic of Cuba (East Cuba) and the Socialist Republic of Cuba (West Cuba). In 1980, an uprising in West Cuba leads to the collapse of the communist government and the two countries' reunification.

After Czechoslovakia's government becomes pro-Western in the 60s and chooses to join NATO, the Slovakian communists secede from the country and stick with the Warsaw Pact, letting the Czechs go their own way.

France loses Brittany, Corsica, the Saarland, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon. After General-turned-Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa dies, the country collapses into half a dozen states.

After an independence referendum in 1971, England secedes from the United Kingdom.

China and the Soviet Union both collapse after a series of nuclear conflicts in the 1970's.

Canada, Indonesia, and Turkey also break apart over the course of the timeline.

Western Animation

Futurama shows that this has happened to the US over the past thousand years in some of the few map shots we get. For instance, apparently a Velvet Revolution divided the Penn Republic and Sylvania. Doesn't stop Fry and co. from going on cross-continental trips.

The same would later happen to Turkey's archrival, the Habsburg Empire, in mostly the same region.

Nationalist pressures forced Austria to grant autonomy to Hungary, creating the Austro-Hungarian Empire and dividing the realm between Cisleithania (Austria) and Transleithania (Hungary).

Then after the Great War, its South Slavic states seceded and joined up with Montenegro and Serbia (which also controlled Kosovo & Macedonia) to form the short-lived Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia; the former Austrian states that joined were [most of] Slovenia, [most of] Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina).

German territories became part of Austria (most of them, anyway; that "most" becomes very important later).

Bohemia and Moravia left with Slovakia to form Czechoslovakia

Hungary became independent, but lost territories to neighboring countries.

Also, Krakow and Lwow joined the rest of newly-independent Poland (though the latter would become part of Ukraine after WWII) and Transylvania joined with Romania (which at the time also included most of modern-day Moldova and the small bit of Ukraine to its South).

After Josip Broz Tito's death, ethnic tensions in Yugoslavia brought a more modern meaning to the term (as in through ethnic lines). Yugoslavia's balkanization was bloody, involved various foreign powers, and is still ongoing, the latest event being Kosovo's secession in 2008. Coming soon to a Southeastern Europe near you: the independence of the four Serbian-majority counties in Kosovo as North Kosovo!

After the World Wars, the European powers did this to their colonies and protectorates in Africa and the Middle East. However, rather than splitting up their holdings by former tribal, ethnic, or religious lines, the new countries were mostly formed from the borders between holdings by different European powers, resulting in countries where different groups who spent most of their history fighting each other suddenly having to cooperate in governing a fledgling nation – so watch for the next round, coming soon!

In fact, one solution for war-torn Iraq – proposed by, among other people, Joe Biden – was to divide it into a Kurdish north, a secular/Sunni middle-&-west including Baghdad, and a Shi'a south; this solution was vetoed by Turkey (who don't want a de jure independent Kurdistan on their doorstep due to their own troubles RE Kurdish nationalists) and nation-building advocates in the US and Israel (who worried about a Shi'a-Arab-only state aligning itself with also-Shi'a Iran). Of course, one could argue keeping it as one nation hasn't really worked much better...

Since Alexander the Great left no heir and no instructions for a regency (and his only son Alexander IV born after his death was quickly assassinated), his Macedonian Empire fractured after his death in 323 BC. Once the dust cleared (after forty years), it was divided among his generals: Macedon (Cassander / Alexander's native Greece), the Ptolemaic Kingdom (Ptolemy I Soter / modern-day Egypt), the Seleucid Empire (Seleucis I Nicator / modern-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel/Palestine), and the Kingdom of Pergamon (Lysimachus / modern-day Bulgaria, eastern Greece and European Turkey).

The theme of a Space-Filling Empire's decay resulting into anarchy and division into fragmented interwarring states is one of the most recognizable patterns throughout history. The Persian Empire (several times from classical antiquity to early modern times), The Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Spanish Empire, the French Empire, The British Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire – the list can go on......

In China it's considered the "Mandate of Heaven" that eventually a dynasty will become corrupt, break down into warring states, and be reunified into a new dynasty due to the cycle repeating itself for 4000 years. This was of course very convenient, as it both gave justification for imperial rule (Heaven favors this person to run the country) while also justifying revolt and rebellion through explaining the corruption that dynasties inevitably suffer over time. This historical pattern happened to them so frequently that it became constitutional. Summed up in the opening line to Romance of the Three Kingdoms: "The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide." In modern times China remains divided between the People's Republic of China (mainland) and the Republic of China (Taiwan), while there are separatist movements within the mainland in both Tibet and Xinjiang, provinces which are Autonomous Regions In-Name-Only.

In a somewhat logical conclusion of the events of Mikhail Gorbachev's reign, USSR balkanized itself in 1991, thus creating The Great Politics Mess-Up. Ever since, several of the USSR's breakaway states balkanized even more. Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia; Transnistria from Moldova; Crimea from Ukraine (formerly part of Russia, transferred to the Ukrainian SSR in The '50s, attempted to break away in 1993/1994, reintegrated into Ukraine and given status as an Autonomous Republic and then annexed by Russia after referendum in 2014), Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan, etc. As the 2008 South Ossetian war has shown, a large number of these separations have been violent.

Ironically enough, most of these further balkanizations have been under the auspices of Russia in order to weaken the states that broke away, but also with a plausible reason – most such territories are populated by minority ethnic groups and were semi-autonomous regions during the Soviet era, but lost the privilege once assimilated into the new republics. As is the case with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, their local populations were willing to fight to retain autonomy. Russia's autonomous oblasts retain their status, perhaps a lesson learned from the infighting within the breakaway states.

In 1993 Czechoslovakia followed the USSR's example; the country peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Germany, to varying degrees in history. It spent several centuries as at least 300 states under one theoretical state, which decreased to around 20, both legally and in practice (though bound in an alliance), followed by a shrinking number until there were two left (as far as Germans of the time saw it). After a short period of unification (75 years), it was split in two during the Cold War, then reunified in 1990 (though Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria, and German speaking parts of Switzerland, France, Italy, Belgium and Denmark remain outside Germany).

A certain secessionist sentiment remains, however, in modern Germany as well. Bavaria, which was historically an autonomous kingdom until the rise of Weimar Germany, currently enjoys political semi-autonomy inside the German Federation as the "Bavarian Free State" (having, among other things, its own constitution), which (moderately) popularised the idea of an independent Bavarian Republic outside the federation and the EU (whereas others would even get back the monarchy too); at least one political party has been pushing this agenda for the better half of a century.

Following the death of Prince Bolesław III in 1138, Poland was divided among his sons and over the next two centuries fractured into smaller princedoms. It was not until 1320 that the major regions were reunited under a single ruler. Some of the other regions would not become part of Poland again until after World War II.

After Genghis Khan's death, the Mongol Empire split into the Chagatai Khanate (Central Asia), the Khanate of the Golden Horde (Russia and Kazakhstan), the Ilkhanate (Persia westward to Turkey), and the Yuan (China and modern Mongolia).

Early in the 20th century, Ireland attempted to break free from Great Britain, only for it to be divided in 1922 between the Catholic-dominated 26-county Southern Ireland (later the Irish Free State, and then simply Ireland) and the Protestant-dominated six-county Northern Ireland.note Only two of Northern Ireland's traditional counties – Down and Antrim – have Protestant majorities today. The other four – Armagh, Derry/Londonderry, Fermanagh, and Tyrone – have Catholic majorities (and the latter two had Catholic majorities even in 1922)—on the other hand, Counties Antrim and Down are by far the most populous in Northern Ireland (together holding about 63.5% of the entire population of the region), and Protestants retain a bare plurality in Northern Ireland as a whole (possibly slightly larger when persons refusing to identify have to choose). The latter's situation looks to be slowly inverting with recent power-sharing agreements.

However, the 2015 crisis in that country has fueled speculation that Yemen could once again find itself split in two.

After The Korean War ended with an unofficial armistice (meaning both countries are technically still at war), the Korean Peninsula, once a unified state, split between communist North and capitalist South, and judging by their less-than-friendly relations, the status quo may have to remain. Unlike many examples though, they have a common languagenote kinda; the Northern dialect has been in something of a linguistic stasis since 1945 whereas the South's has modernized along with the country, meaning Southerners usually find a Northerner's speech "archaic", culture, and heritage; the divide is solely political.

Sentiment for the secession of majority Francophone Quebec from Canada ebbs and wanes, culminating in a referendum in 1995 where secession lost by a small margin.

One possibility suggested during the 1995 referendum was that parts of Quebec that were against secessionnote For reference, these areas include parts of the province France never controlled before 1763 – the far north and West (where First Nations are far more likely to speak English than French) and the Loyalist-settled (but now majority Francophone) towns of the far southeast near the US border; also the Anglophone enclaves within Montreal and Hull, could split off from an independent Quebec and either form their own nations or more likely merge back into Canada.

The First Nations of Quebec have said that they hold their lands under treaty with the Queen, and know nothing of any "Republic of Quebec", and thus if Quebec secedes from Canada, they'll secede from Quebec.

Quebec wasn't the first to attempt secession. Nova Scotia seemed to move to that direction in the first provincial election right after Confederation even occurred. British Columbia and western Alberta also mulled secession at the same time as Quebec. Newfoundland, the last province brought into the fold, has had a recent Premier who made overtures of secession. Even provinces came close to this at different times, such as creating a Province out of northern Ontario and dividing the Northwest Territories (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Nunavut were all carved out of the Northwest Territories).

Saskatchewan and Alberta went through a phase of this in the early 1980s, with several secessionist parties, such as the Unionist party (Who wanted to join the US) and the Western Canada Concept (who wanted to make a new country from the western provinces and the territories.). The latter recently got semi-revived with the creation of the Western Bloc Party, but they're getting very little traction, coming in 3rd from last in the most recent election.

Several political parties in Belgium want to split the country up between Dutch-speaking Flanders and Francophone Wallonia. Flemish nationalist party N-VA (the New Flemish Alliance) became the largest party in Parliament in the 2010 elections, leading to cabinet formation negotiations which dragged on for almost two years. Some figures point out that if Belgium were to split, it could become up to 4 different countries – Flanders, Wallonia, formerly Prussian Eupen-Malmédy, and the multicultural city-state of Brussels, which also functions as the headquarters of The European Union.

South Sudan broke off from the rest of Sudan – after a 20+-year civil war and internationally brokered peace agreement (that still hasn't been completely fulfilled) – to become its own internationally-recognized nation in 2011.

One bit of it did last, however. After Virginia seceded, the people in northwestern Virginia decided they'd like to still be part of the Union. Therefore, they seceded from Virginia, forming the new state of West Virginia. Even though Virginia was brought back into the Union by the end of the war, West Virginia remains a separate state to this day.

There's also a bit from the lead up: in 1820, as part of the Missouri compromise, Maine was added to the union as a free state to balance Missouri (a slave state). Before that is was part of Massachusetts.

Some native Hawaiians argue that the U.S. annexation of Hawaii was illegal and call for the restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy. In 1993, Bill Clinton signed a bill which officially apologized for the not-nice way Hawaii was annexed back in the 1890s. In 2009, the Akaka Bill attempted to recognize native Hawaiians as a semi-sovereign "nation within a nation" (a legal status similar to that of mainland Native Americans, as well as Puerto Rico), but it failed to pass. Oddly, the claim that Hawaii isn't really part of the United States has only attracted the attention of a very few Obama birthers.

There also exists various movements to do this on the state level, though these would explicitly require the approval of both Congress and all states involved. Usually it's a case of one part of the state feeling shafted by the state government. Repeated instances that pop up on occasion (usually on slow news days) include California (either north/south or coastal/inlandnote Despite popular perception, a lot of California away from the cities is really conservative), the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, New York between the city and upstate (the big argument is over who would get to keep "New York"), and Illinois between Chicago and downstate.

You can take it another level with counties and municipalities doing it. Procedures, motivations, and success rates vary by state. For instance, both Staten Island and the San Fernando Valley voted to secede and become their own municipalities in the last couple of decades. In Staten Island's case, their 1993 referendum was 65% in favor of secession, though they stayed within the City of New York due to the election of Rudy Giuliani who promised to address their two biggest grievances of making the Staten Island Ferry free of charge and closing the Fresh Kills Landfill. The Valley's push, on the other hand, had their proposal unanimously blocked by the city council even though their 2002 referendum was 55% in favor of secession within the Valley.

This almost happened in the truest sense to the Roman Empire during the Crisis of the Third Century, when the empire was for decades overwhelmed with civil wars and military revolts. At its worst the empire split between the "real" Roman Empire centered around Italy, the Gallic Empire (mainly Gaul, Brittania, and Germania), and Queen Zenobia's Palmyrene Empire, which covered much of modern day Syria, Palestine/Israel, Egypt, and Turkey. All three "empires" were forcibly unified by 274, but it is an interesting what-if to consider what would have happened long-term if they were not...

After this has happened repeatedly in Italy's history, which witnessed the creation and fall of dozens of independent states every couple of decades, modern Italy still isn't safe from the secessionist popularity. South Tyrol (at least) used to be a possible candidate for secession, as it was only obtained (relatively) recently from Austria-Hungary after WW1, and is thus ended up being German-speaking and Austrian-cultured. On top of it, it already enjoys semi-autonomy after a brief 'uprising' in 1961 (casulaties: 37 electricity pylons). Veneto, the region surrounding Venice, is one notable example of a region that still sees active campaigns for sovereignty by right-wing and nationalistic groups, particularly since it ranks (unsurprisingly) amongst the wealthiest places in Italy.

After the shock of the Fourth Crusade, where invaders from Catholic Europe on the way to wrest Jerusalem from Muslim rule (again) instead invaded Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire balkanized as a result of there being not only multiple rival Orthodox Christian claimants to the imperial throne but also squabbling Latin Crusaders who wanted to carve out their own independent territories. You had Epirus (northwestern Greece), the duchy of Athens, Naxos, Rhodes, the kingdom of Thessalonica, the principality of Achaea (southern Greece), the Empire of Nikaea (Asia Minor), and the Empire of Trebizond (which despite calling itself an empire at its peak consisted of the southernmost tip of the Crimean peninsula and...well, Trebizond itself and its surrounding areas). Some were reincorporated into the Byzantine Empire, but a few like Trebizond would hold out for a while even after the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

Happened quite a bit in Australia's history. Originally, it was divided between two separate colonies: Western Australia (formerly the Swan River Colony) and New South Wales. Over the years, New South Wales would fragment into Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Northern Territory, the state it is today, and New Zealand (The newly-independent Australia offered both New Zealand and Fiji to join in. They refused, but they're still regarded as states on the Constitution). South Australia itself used to occupy Northern Territory, and short-lived states such as North Australia and Central Australia were also established. Later on, the Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory also made themselves independent from New South Wales. As the Constitution of Australia allows for new states to be formed, regions such as Riverina (along the NSW-Victoria border), New England (northern NSW) and Capricornia (northern Queensland) have all lobbied for statehood. Just to add to the chaos, Western Australia has been threatening to secede from the rest of the nation ever since Federation became an idea (though their mood changes depending on how well their economy's doing).

A big issue in modern Spain is the increasing secessionist will of Catalonia and, to a lesser extent, the Basque Country, especially since the economic crisis started. Nationalists are in power in both of those regions and the central government's refusal to organize a referendum about Catalonia only fuels resentment. The Basque issue is more complex, as the northern part of historical Euskadi is in France, which is a much more centralized country and where the Basque Country is a historical region but not an administrative entity.

And speaking of France, nationalists have recently won the regional elections in Corsica (although only by a relative majority) and the new president of the region went as far as to pronounce his inaugural speech in Corsican, not in French − notably saying that "Corsica is a nation of its own, not a piece of another country" and making a clear distinction between the "Corsican people" and French people from the continent. The population is very divided on the question, though, not helped by the fact that armed terrorism was a thing on the island until not so long ago (a prefect was assassinated in 1998, for example).

Brittany also has a history of nationalism due in part to its Celtic cultural roots, although most modern Bretons aren't really in favor of secession that much (the fact that some parts of the nationalist movement had ties to Nazi Germany and promoted a similar ideology probably doesn't help).

After the Battle of Austerlitz in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire collapsed in to two halves: Prussia and the "Confederation of the Rhine"; after WW2, when the former Allies failed to agree on the nature of a re-unified Germany, the Western Allies (Britain, France and the US) created the German Federal Republic from their half, prompting Soviet premier Krushchev to remark "So, all we have to show for 150 years of history is the re-creation of the Confederation of the Rhine".

Oslo, the Norwegian capital, suffers under a perpetual threat of becoming this - for political reasons. When the city has a right-wing leadership, the eastern part of the city suffers, and over the last decade, numerous threats were made on seceding the eastern parts of the city. Then, a more left-wing city council was elected, and then the western part of the city threatened to secede.

The Congo Crisis in the former Belgian Congo has been caused by tensions between regions and the Léopoldville central authority and saw the following states created in 1960:

A Mining State of South Kasai led by Albert Kalondji and ordered like Katanga above, yet with a lesser foreign support, created briefly both in 1960 and 1962-1963.

A lumumbist People's Republic of Congo in Stanleyville, led by Antoine Gizenga shortly after Patrice Lumumba was arrested on December 1960 and was dissolved in 1961.

In the troubles of July and August 1960, yet other secessionist projects were attempted, such as the secession of the Equateur province by Bolikongo and, even more weirder, the secession of the Bas-Congo region, where was situated the capital Léopoldville!

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